First off, from the "No Comment" Department, two items, two statements
from figures eminent on the world stage: one statement interesting for
what it says, the other for what it leaves out.

Statement #1: ANSA,
November 25, Vatican City. Pope Benedict said Friday that a lack of REVERENCE for
the divine has led to the global economic crisis.
"The diffusion of this mentality has generated
the crisis in which we live today, which is more a crisis of values than of
economics," said the Pontiff.

Statement #2: Newsmax On
Line, November 25. President Obama gave his weekly radio address, one
devoted to THANKSGIVING, by
praising U. S. Service members and volunteers at shelters and soup
kitchens. The president outlined the... various things
that HE was grateful for, but
not once was there any reference to GOD.
[Emphasis added]
.

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All of which can serve as a launchpad for discussion of a related
topic. Michael Gerson, a respected columnist for the Washington Post, the flagship paper
of our nation's capital, addressed in a recent essay an issue that, you
may recall, claimed front and center of last week's Pastor's Page, namely, Mr.
Obama-and-Friends' declaration of outright "WAR" against the defenders
of Judaeo-Christian sexual morality and thus preeminently against the
Catholic Church-a Kulturkampf-in-the- making
reminiscent of the Age of Bismarck, though Bismarck would have
been appalled at the sexual decadence and the uninhibited blood-lust
that inspire Mr. Obama's "transvaluation of all values" campaign. Mr.
Gerson, an independent observer with no partisan axe to grind, had this
to say.

In 2009, Notre Dame University
set off months of intra-Catholic controversy by inviting a champion of
abortion rights to deliver its commencement address. When the day
arrived, President Obama skillfully deflated the tension. He
extended a "presumption of good faith" to his opponents. Then he promised Catholics that their
prolife convictions would be RESPECTED by his administration. "Let's
HONOR the conscience of those who DISAGREE with abortion," he said,
"and draft a SENSIBLE conscience clause, and make SURE that ALL of our
health care policies are grounded not only in sound science, but also
in clear ETHICS, as well as respect for the equality of women."

Catholics, eager for reassurance
from a leader whom 54 percent had supported, were duly reassured.
But Obama's statement had the awkward subordinate clauses of a
contentious speechwriting process. Qualifications
and code words produced a pledge that pledged little.

Now the conscience protections
of Catholics are under ASSAULT particularly by the Department of Health
and Human Services (HHS). And Obama's Catholic strategy is in shambles.

Shortly before Obama spoke at Notre Darne, the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts brought suit against the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), seeking
to eliminate a grant to their programs helping victims of human
trafficking. Because Catholic programs don't refer for abortions, the ACLU
alleged that public support amounts to the
establishment of religion.

The Obama Justice Department defended
the USCCB grant in court. But last
month, HHS abruptly ENDED the funding. It did not matter that an
independent review board had rated the bishops' program MORE EFFECTIVE
than those of its competitors - or that career HHS employees OBJECTED
to the politicized handling of the grant. HHS announced it was
giving preference to grantees that offer "the FULL RANGE of legally permissible
gynecological and obstetric care." ["Let him who reads understand"].

The process that produced the
HHS decision remains murky. The USCCB has filed a Freedom of
Information Act request requesting more details. But it is difficult to imagine that HHS
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was not
involved in a matter of this much obvious controversy. Sebelius - an
outspoken pro-choice [self-styled] Catholic - has a long history of
conflict with Catholic authorities.

BROADLY applied, the HHS policy
would amount to SYSTEMATIC ANTI-CATHOLIC BIAS in government programs.
And the provocation is ONE IN A SERIES. HHS has drawn conscience
protections so NARROWLY that Catholic
colleges, universities and hospitals-any Catholic institution that
employs and serves non-Catholies-will be REQUIRED to offer health
coverage including contraception and drugs that cause abortion. In
GLOBAL health grants, NEW language is appearing REQUIRING the integration of family
planning and "reproductive health" services, effectively barring the participation of
Catholic institutions. Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the
USCCB, calls these policies an "assault which now appears to grow at an
ever-ACCELERATING pace in ways that most of us could never have
imagined."

The main VICTIMS of this assault
are NOT THE BISHOPS BUT THE POOR AND VULNERABLE. It
is also politically incomprehensible. Obama's Catholic outreach is
being revealed as a transparent ploy-a
year before he faces reelection. A
portion of the Democratic coalition-including civil libertarians
and pro-choice activists-has decided
to attack and marginalize Catholic leaders and institutions. And
HHS is ACTIVELY siding against
Catholic organizations. "We are in WAR!," Sebelius told a recent
pro-choice meeting. Opponents of the administration, she said,
are trying to "roll back the last 50 years of progress women have made
in comprehensive [abortion-inclusive]
health care in America." This is no longer the "presumption of good faith." It has
all the hallmarks of a vendetta....
[Emphasis added].

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"The
enemies of a man are those of his own household." So the
Prophet Micah (7:6) and the Lord Himself (Matthew 10:36) have assured
us. The aforesaid Ms. Sebelius, a vehemently pro-choice self- certified
"Catholic", matches this profile to perfection, as indeed does a whole
legion of "progressive" Catholics (c.f. Call to Action, Catholics for
Choice, and sundry coalitions of militant nuns) who in one breath
proclaim their Catholicity and in the next breath implicitly deny it,
as they defiantly assert their INTRANSIGENT support for propositions
that contradict the Faith. The Apostle John's warning in his Second
Letter (II John, verse 9) about the "progressive" revisionists of his own day comes readily to mind:
"Anyone who GOES AHEAD [i.e. who glories in being "out in front of the
pack") and does NOT ABIDE IN THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST-DOES NOT HAVE GOD."

A striking example of the extraordinary case with which the
"progressive" Catholic can embrace BOTH sides of a contradiction all at
once, even, as it please you, before breakfast, was highlighted three
weeks ago in The Wanderer,
edition of November 17th. May I share Dexter Duggans' report with you
here.

The same day that a bustling
pro-life pregnancy center held its annual dinner here [Phoenix, AZ] to
celebrate babies and their moms, Arizona's largest daily
newspaper COINCIDENTALLY
reported that a religious sister WHO
FACILITATED AN ABORTION at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in
Phoenix in 2009, expressed PRIDE at receiving an AWARD (for her
INVOLVEMENT in the abortion) from the Call to Action organization of
dissident Catholics.

At the November 5 Scottsdale benefit for Phoenix's First Way pregnancy-support
center, stories were shared of daunting
challenges overcome so that babies could be BORN.

One First Way client, Laura,
told the audience that she already had five children, her husband was
unemployed, and their apartment caught fire "and we lost everything"
while she faced being pregnant again. "Nothing I can offer this kid"
she said she thought as she planned to have an abortion. But she
changed her mind through pro-life support, and her delivery date was 23
days away. FIRST WAY IS "LIKE MY
SANCTUARY," SHE SAID.

While LAY PEOPLE AT FIRST WAY
on McDowell Road assist
pregnant women to avoid
abortion, a religious sister
at the formerly Catholic
hospital not far away, on Thomas Road, took comfort if a pregnancy
ended in abortion.

The Phoenix-based Arizona Republic reported on
November 5 that Sister Margaret McBride, of the Sisters of Mercy, [yes, you read that right!]
said she was "VERY PROUD to be
receiving this award" from Call to Action, an organization, that
the often-liberal Republic
described as supporting "a married priesthood, women priests, gay
marriage, and other positions that the Church opposes."

In honoring McBride, the Republic story
said, Call to Action said it "recognizes
Sister Margaret's CAREFUL WORK with a COMPLEX issue, her COURAGE in a
time of censorship and public pressure and her WITNESS to the need TO
STAND FIRM in the face of opposition, while striving to PROTECT life
[sic] in all its venues."

In a November 8'h story, the
[hyperprogressive] National Catholic
Reporter said, "McBride received the Call to Action 2011
Leadership Award at the national conference November 6 because SHE
represents the 'TRUE meaning of a PASTOR' according to Call to
Action...."

The abortion reportedly was performed on a mother suffering from
pulmonary hypertension who carried an 11-week-old
unborn baby.

The Reporter
story said that when the aborted mother later expressed sorrow for the
problems she had caused McBride,
McBride replied that "you just don't see my SUPPORT; you don't
see the employees, you don't
see the doctors, you don't see
the board of directors and the
Catholic Healthcare West who have SUPPORTED me through this interesting
time."

The mother had returned to the hospital, the Reporter had
said, because she "had started taking street drugs."

The Wanderer asked Phoenix Catholic Bishop Thomas
Olmsted, who was attending the First Way benefit dinner, for a comment
about Call to Action's honoring McBride. Bishop Olmsted declined to
comment, saying that Call to Action is "not an organization we
support."

Asked if a diocesan media spokesman would have a comment, Olmsted said
no.

Olmsted drew applause at the
First Way dinner when he was introduced as being "a beacon of light in
a culture of death."

A First Way spokesman in a video said, "We
help women feel like women. We help them feel cherished" and
feel renewed.

Telling of hundreds of babies saved from abortion last year, Peter
Lemieux, who helped emcee the First Way dinner, said little
life-changing moments "go unnoticed in a world addicted to big events."

During a December 21 news
conference last year, Olmsted said the baby aborted at St. Joseph's
"was healthy and there were no problems with the pregnancy,
rather, the mother has a disease that needed to be treated. But instead
of treating the disease, St. Joseph's
medical staff and ethics committee decided that the healthy 11-week-old
baby should be directly killed" through abortion.

In his December news conference, the bishop said a lengthy review revealed that [St.Joseph's] hospital
was also involved in OTHER violations of Catholic medical ethics.

Olmsted rebuked St. Joseph's and
its parent organization, the San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare
West (CHW), for "FORMAL COOPERATION IN EVIL ACTIONS which are contrary
to the Church's teaching," including other abortions, sterilizations,
and contraceptive counseling and devices.

Only in recent weeks,
Bishop Olmsted had told that news conference, did he learn the far-reaching extent of
the violations of Church ethical directives by St. Joseph's and CHW.

St. Joseph's "CANNOT BE
CONSIDERED CATHOLIC" any longer, Bishop Olmsted told the news
conference.

Catholics are still free to seek
care or to provide care at St. Joseph's, he said, "but I cannot
guarantee that the care provided will be in full accord with the
teachings of the Church." As a result, he said, the regular celebration
of Mass and presence of the Blessed Sacrament in the chapel would end.

Strange Ways With the News

Earlier last year, Olmsted said
McBride has excommunicated herself by helping to approve the abortion
at St. Joseph's.

The November 5 Republic
story said "sources say [McBride] has resolved
that situation by going to confession. She declined to answer a
question about the excommunication."

One might wonder at the depth of
McBride's repentance in light of her expressing PRIDE at the Call to
Action award HONORING her involvement with the abortion that had
separated her from the Church.

EWTN news reported last December that a member of the Phoenix diocesan
medical board, William Chavira, MD, said the baby died when the
placenta was removed - a direct abortion, not a treatment for the
mother's hypertension.

Once again illustrating its strange ways with the news, the Republic became
reluctant to refer directly to the abortion of this baby as being an
abortion. Its November 5 story on McBride's award referred instead to a
"lifesaving [sic] medical
procedure that the bishop DEEMED an
abortion."[Emphasis Added].